Glencoe

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Celtic Anthology Project

In the greedy corporate world we now live it is sometimes easy to forget the reasons Celtic Football Club was formed.

Working-class Irish immigrants had come to Scotland to escape the horrors of the Irish Famine, find employment and build new lives. They ended up living in severely overcrowded poor quality housing, starving and unable to find work. Not only were they competing with ever increasing numbers of immigrants but also the indigenous Scottish population.

Into this background came the main player in the founding of the club; Brother Walfrid was a Marist priest and Headmaster of Sacred Heart School. A tireless community worker for the deprived Catholic residents of Glasgow's east end, Brother Walfrid saw the new football club purely as a fundraising enterprise. The name of the club, Celtic, was Walfrid's own suggestion and was intended to reflect both Celtic's Irish and Scottish roots.

No one back then could've known how this club from humble beginnings would become world famous.

And now, as Celtic celebrates its 125th birthday, the club has set the challenge for fans to each raise £125 for charity.

http://www.celticfc.net/1254125

Many have already completed a variety of challenges, such as cycling from Sligo to Celtic Park, and walking the West Highland Way.

Once aware of the challenge I thought about getting involved, which surprised me, as I'm not really one for getting involved in anything. However, being a bit of a lazy sod, the mere thought of climbing the steps at Celtic Park or climbing Ben Nevis was enough to tire me out, so I decided to go for a wee lie down instead.

Don't be too harsh on me. I do most of my best thinking while enjoying a wee lie down. Many of my stories, poems or blogs have been born while horizontal. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

During one particular lie down I drifted into a land of stories. Celtic stories.

Over the last few months I've stumbled across a number of pieces of writing that touched and inspired me.

I'm not talking about the number of great bloggers who write so well about Celtic-related issues. I was more interested in short stories and poems. Pieces that took readers on a journey and left them feeling proud to be part of the Celtic family.

Works such as Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan's story linking Johnny Madden to Lubo Moravcik, and Tirnaog's tale of spreading Paddy's Ashes after the recent Celtic v Barcelona game at Celtic Park are just two that stood out.

I felt them deserving of a larger audience.

An embryo of an idea was born.

I contacted a number of people whose work I'd admired and asked if they'd be interested in compiling an anthology of Celtic-related short stories and poems.

The only qualification being that each piece captures the spirit of following Celtic.

To everyone's credit not one person said no.

Such was their enthusiasm I began to suspect we were on to something special. I hope you agree.

The next step is to spread the word and find other writers, poets, fans who'd like to get involved.

With such a huge fan base around the world there must be many pieces of work written over the years.

There may be fans who have stories to tell but haven't got around to putting them on paper or computer.

Perhaps there are stories or poems lying around on computers that have never been shared.

Perhaps there are stories or poems lying around in drawers, boxes or cupboards that have never been shared.

Perhaps your dad or granddad or uncle are no longer with is but they used to write stories or poems and you have access to them.

Maybe you've read a great Celtic-related story on a Celtic website. If so, point me or Lorenzo Wordsmith or Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan in the right direction, or contact the author and ask them if they'd like to get involved.

Submissions can be sent direct to celticanthology@gmail.com

This is a fan-orientated project, and having more fans involved will undoubtedly enrich the outcome.

When there's enough stories and poems to fill a decent-sized book the plan is to get it published and donate all proceeds to the Celtic 1254125 Charity.

I hope you find this a worthwhile project and do what you can to support it.

If you can help in any way, either by submitting a piece of your own work, or pointing us in the direction of suitable work by others, or by sharing this message as widely as possible to create awareness, then please do so by contacting us at